IDG Research and FalconStor Software Find Companies Inadequately Prepared for IT Disasters Heading into 2013

FalconStor
Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: FALC), a market leader in disk-based data
protection, today announced the results of its independent “Disaster
Recovery Trends and Metrics” quick poll, which was conducted in
partnership with IDG Research Services. Featuring responses from 189 IT
managers and executives, the
survey found that 42 percent are still not adequately armed with
modern disaster recovery solutions, even though they experienced at
least one instance of data loss in the past year.

Many of those surveyed continue to rely on ineffective manual processes
and tape backup systems; however, most respondents anticipate an
evolutionary move toward highly available, automated systems with data
replication within the next 18 months.

“In conducting this survey, we found it surprising that participating
companies experienced an average of 34 instances of data loss and IT
outages; even with this level of system failure, disaster recovery
testing was not a priority for these businesses,” said Janet King,
general manager and vice president at IDG Research Services. “This poll
illustrates why companies must remain vigilant on the topic of data
protection by implementing automated solutions that eliminate unexpected
losses.”

The survey also found that tape backup was the most pervasive data
backup solution, with 23 percent of large enterprises, 48 percent of
medium enterprises and 27 percent of small businesses relying on this
technology. Additional survey findings include:

Sixty-five percent of respondents reported using manual disaster
recovery processes; however, 83 percent reported that they believe
automated disaster recovery and data replication technologies will be
more widely used in the next 18 months.

Seventy-two percent of overall IT leaders stated that their disaster
recovery plans are only tested an average of once a year, with 82
percent of large enterprises completing disaster recovery testing one
or more times yearly as compared to 75 percent of medium enterprises
and 63 percent of small businesses.

Forty-two percent of respondents said their organizations experience
at least one data outage per year, with an average of 34 instances
across enterprises of all sizes; of these companies, the majority of
respondents stated that downtime in excess of four hours for any
outage is unacceptable.

Fifty-three percent of organizations responded that an outage of more
than four hours is unacceptable, with the most common consequence
being loss of productivity as reported by 67 percent, followed by 27
percent reporting harm to reputation, financial loss and loss of
irreplaceable data.

Driven by decreased IT budgets and the conventional perception of
disaster recovery as a manual, time-intensive process, IT has not
quickly adopted new automated solutions. Data
protection and disaster recovery technology is an insurance policy
for today’s data centers, which must be able to operate 24/7 without IT
downtime. In part, the delay in adopting these automated
service-oriented recovery technologies lies in the education of the
market and the executives who must approve these new systems.

“As demonstrated recently by Hurricane Sandy’s impact on the Northeast,
businesses must have a plan in place to quickly restore both data and IT
services to curb the cost of downtime. With the increased adoption of
virtualization and the extraordinary amount of time required for tape
backup, companies are turning to disk-based solutions,” said Ralph Wynn,
senior product marketing manager at FalconStor. “Through the use of
highly available automation technologies and consistent disaster
recovery testing, firms can be assured that they are prepared to handle
any issue that may arise.”

FalconStor’s RecoverTrac™
automated disaster recovery solution was chosen as the
SearchServerVirtualization “Best of VMworld 2012” award gold winner in
the Business Continuity and Data Protection category for its ability to
perform service-oriented recovery in mixed physical/virtual environments
and for enabling continuous data protection. By automating the complex
recovery process, RecoverTrac technology eliminates the costly,
time-consuming task of manually bringing IT services back on line and
provides IT managers with the ability to resume services quickly.

CIO, CTO & Developer Resources

Study demographics

The online poll conducted by IDG Research collected information from 189
IT leaders across all market segments that were using or planning to use
disaster recovery and data protection technologies. Thirty-two percent
of these individuals worked at firms with more than 5,000 employees; 23
percent of these individuals had between 1,001 and 5,000 employees; 37
percent of these individuals had between 101 and 1,000 employees; and
eight percent had between 50 and 100 employees at the time of the survey.

FalconStor, FalconStor Software and RecoverTrac are either trademarks
or registered trademarks of FalconStor Software, Inc., in the U.S. and
other countries. All other company and product names contained herein
may be trademarks of their respective holders.

Links to websites or pages controlled by parties other than
FalconStor are provided for the reader’s convenience and information
only.FalconStor does not incorporate into this release the
information found at those links nor does FalconStor represent or
warrant that any information found at those links is complete or
accurate.Use of information obtained by following these links is
at the reader’s own risk.

The competition among public cloud providers is red hot, private cloud continues to grab increasing shares of IT budgets, and hybrid cloud strategies are beginning to conquer the enterprise IT world.

Big Data is driving dramatic leaps in resource requirements and capabilities, and now the Internet of Things promises an exponential leap in the size of the Internet and Worldwide Web.

The world of SDX now encompasses Software-Defined Data Centers (SDDCs) as the technology world prepares for the Zettabyte Age.

Add the key topics of WebRTC and DevOps into the mix, and you have three days of pure cloud computing that you simply cannot miss.

Cloud Expo - the world's most established event - offers a vast selection of 130+ technical and strategic Industry Keynotes, General Sessions, Breakout Sessions, and signature Power Panels. The exhibition floor features 100+ exhibitors offering specific solutions and comprehensive strategies. The floor also features two Demo Theaters that give delegates the opportunity to get even closer to the technology they want to see and the people who offer it.

Attend Cloud Expo. Craft your own custom experience. Learn the latest from the world's best technologists. Find the vendors you want and put them to the test.